Virus
by Callisto
Summary: ( DOT HACK CROSSOVER! )Kite returns to the world after four years. What will he do when he finds out that a nasty virus is killing players over the whole world?


**Note: It had to come one day... but here it is. I really love the Hack series! I've played the game, watched the animes and read the manga ) So here comes my first dot hack story! Hope you will like it. Also, if anyone would like to beta this... PLEASE! Haha D ( 'cuz I'm Dutch and my English is not 100 percent... ) **

Ps. I know that some charms are called different in my story :P But I just felt like making some changes. So some things will be different than the game / manga, keep that in mind ;)

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Virus. 

Written by: Callisto

He opened is eyes when he got greeted by the sunny looking city of Aqua capital. The boy with sea green hair, red hat and twin blades walked into the city. It was really quiet and he wasn't really pleased with it. ' _It's been now four years after the incident_ ' Thought Kite when he walked onto the bridge. _' But you should think by now that everyone continued with playing... ' _The boy with the red hat placed his hands on his hip and felt a cold breeze tickling his cheeks.   
It was unnatural how much **The World** looked like the real world...   
He saw light coming off his bracelet and raised his hand a little into the air to inspect the bracelet around his wrist. It was shining faintly like it wanted to tell him something. _' I can't believe I still have that thing ' _Thought Kite bitterly. '_ You've cost me a lot of pain and grief, but on the same time happiness and friends. You are a curse and you are salvation... what are you? '_   
He sighed and lowered his wrist. The boy continued with watching the horizon and scratched on the back of his head. Should he e-mail some of his friends to ask them if they wanted to join him to hunt some treasures? But then he shook his head. It had been four years and he had no idea if they still played **The World**! Everyone had gotten much older and maybe they got bored with the game.

Why did he log in anyway? What could he gain by playing this game?   
He shook his head once again and turned around to leave. But then he found ten people surrounding him while they held their lances pointed at his throat. What the hell was going on?!

" We've finally found you, now come with us! "

" What are you talking about? "Asked Kite in confusion. "I just logged in after four years! "

" Don't you dare to lie to us! We know you are behind the current hack attacks we are having. You can come quietly with us, or we have to use force! "

This was insane! He just got back and now everyone wanted to hurt him! Was this the way to say hello to someone that just came back? But that's not all, since when did they have knights dressed in black and red armor?

He could do what they asked and come with them, but something told him that he should try to log out. So in the real world Kite placed his finger on the off button of his PC, but to his great surprise nothing happened. ' _I-I can't log out?! I'm stuck...?_ ' He looked from the right to the left and saw the Knights getting closer and closer. Something was defiantly wrong here! He had to try to escape from here and then he would try to log out again, and if it didn't work he would turn off his whole PC. Too bad for the four hours of gameplay, but right now it didn't matter to him.

  
Charm of Speed! Yelled Kite and he ran with unnatural speed past the guards and headed for the Chaos Gate. ' _It's probably safer if I go to one of the dungeons, they would NEVER find me there!_ ' He could hear the footsteps of the knights coming closer and closer. Damn! How can they be so fast without using the Charm of Speed   
Then he felt a kick against his back and fell on the ground. He rolled a few times on the ground before he smashed against a stone wall that belonged to one of the houses.

Kite got up and felt something warm streaming down his lower lip. He was... bleeding? And it hurts? How is this possible?! It is just a game! Your character isn't supposed to feel pain!

" Now come with us you brat! " Spat one of the knights that talked to him before.

Kite spitted some blood on the ground and removed the blood on his lip with the back of his hand. He could see how his glove turned a little red, so this wasn't a hallucination. He was indeed bleeding!

" Leave me alone "

The twin blader jumped forward and pushed a knight out of the way. He fell in the circle of the Chaos Gate and quickly said a few words to leave this place. It didn't matter where he ended up, so he had pushed some random buttons. He closed his eyes and waited for the light of the dungeon he was heading.

----------------------------- 

After a while he opened his eyes and found himself standing on some grass. There were grasslands as far as the eyes could see, so it looked like he managed to escape. He stretched his arms a little and sat down. Let's try to log out again; maybe it didn't work before because administrators surrounded him. In the real world Kite tried to log off, but once again it didn't work. ' _Too bad for my four hours of gameplay, but I want to get out of here_ ' He reached for the off button that would turn his PC off and touched it... But nothing happened. ' _W-What?! '_   
Kite tried again and touched the button again, but it was no difference. ' _I'm stuck... in The World? I can't log off! Dammit! Well I just have to wait until my dad will come up to my room and tell me to quit playing. Hopefully they will remove my Virtual Reality glasses in the progress... _' He wished when he took his twin blades out of its protectors.

He looked around and in the distant he could see some movements. He stood up and narrowed his eyes a little.

Dammit! It was those creeps again! How the hell did they follow him to some random level like this one?

He began to run to the opposite direction and began to check on his items. He had a lot of potions that would heal his HP and MP, and he had plenty of supporting and attack charms. For the time being he was alright, but he had to make haste. He really didn't want to get caught by those strangers.

Wait a sec...

He still had his Grunty flute! With that he could summons one of the Grunty's he had raised in that world!   
Kite began to play on the flute and in an instant he saw a Grunty standing next to him. It was Snakey Grunty and it appeared to be glad to see the Twin Blader.

" Masterrr, Hisss! "Said the cow looking creature. "Me issshhh sssso happy to sssee you, hiss! "

" I'm happy to see you too " Smiled Kite when he patted the Grunty on his shoulder. He jumped on its back and the creature began to run.

" Can you tell me what is going on in The World? For some reason its deserted and some strange looking knights are trying to kidnap me "

" Me don't knowsss masssterrr... But the world hasss changed indeed. My fellow friendsss are all ssscared forrr ssssome ssstrange reassson, hiss. "

" The other Grunty's too? That's odd... Oh! You can put me off by the entrance of the dungeon? By the way, do you know where I can find other players? I need to gain some information about these weird events "

" Me don't knowsss where they are. But give me sssome time to find them, hide in here and call me in about a hourrr, hiss "

" All right " Nodded Kite. " Take care! "

" Be carrrrefulll, hiss! "

Kite jumped off and waved until he lost the Grunty out of sight. This was getting strange and stranger by the minute. Even the cow like beasts didn't know what was going on, and they used to be the source of information. He removed some sweat of his forehead and blinked when he saw that his glove became a little wet. He's even sweating? In a game?

He began to walk down in the stairs and the beautiful soundtrack of the water dungeon began to fill his mind. He really loved the water dungeons, not because it looked so pretty and stuff, but he really loved the soundtrack.

Normally he would put his controller on his lap and listen half an hour to the beautiful music, and then he would continue to play. Unfortunately he didn't had time to do it again this time...

Just when he walked into the second chamber the doors got closed and monsters filled the place. Oh great... He had forgotten that he was still inside of a level so of course monsters would attack him.

But right now he didn't feel like taking them on. So he raised his arm into the air and took a deep breath.

" Data drain! "

Green strings shot out of his bracelet and began to suck the data out of the creatures. It didn't take long before they turned into harmless creatures. With two slashes he finished them.

He really needed to get careful now. Because if Kite used his bracelet too much it would completely infect his character with bad data, and then it would be deleted. Yep, that's what you get when you play with illegal stuff.

But why shouldn't he do that? Maybe he could escape the world by doing that... nah! Not a chance. What if his soul got captured in this game like what happened by other the gamers four years ago?

He shivered by the thoughts and decided to 'delete' that option. His only hope was that his dad or older sister would tear off his virtual glasses.

But now for the time being he had to hide himself from those strange knights and wait for the Grunty.

Kite continued his way through the dungeon but by the next chamber he got the shock of his life. He saw a figure lying on the ground bathing in its own blood. He began to run to the person and recognized it immediately...

Balmung...

He fell on his knees and placed his arm under the white knights neck.

" Balmung... Balmung... Can you hear me? Balmung...! "

The white knight opened his eyes and tried to smile.

" S-Shugo... You escaped.... "

" Shugo...? It's me, Kite. I came back! "

" K-Kite? "

" Yes, it's me... What happened...? Why is The World so... different? "

" I...Urghh... "

He began to cough up some blood and the twin blader knew it was getting serious. So he laid Balmung back on the ground and began to perform a spell.

" Ol Repht! "

Some of the wounds began to heal, but the blue haired boy knew that it wasn't enough.

" Ol Repht!! "

This time he was successful. The wounds disappeared and he saw how the knight began to regain his strength.

Balmung sat up and removed some dust off his gloves. Kite smiled and sat down in front of him, ready to ask him what the hell happened with The World.

" What is wrong with the world? Who are those knights? Where are the players? How come I can't log out? How come I can feel pain? What happened to you? Why- "

" Slow down, slow down..." Sighed the white knight. "To begin with your first question; No one really knows what happened to The World. Your second question; we also have no idea who those knights are. One day they suddenly appeared and began to attack the towns, almost if they were declaring a war against the administrators. Everyone of the CC Corporation tried to delete them, but none has succeeded. Your third question; all the players are scattered over The World and are hiding in the dungeons, terrified that the Knights may find them. Your fourth question; I don't know how they did it, but as soon as you put on your virtual reality glasses you can't log out. I think they must've used some kind of virus... Your fifth question; now here begins the oddness, no one can explain why we can feel pain. I wish I had an answer for that but I don't, and I guess that no one will. And finally the sixth question... it will take some time to explain that... "

Balmung began to tell about Shugo, how he and his sis won Kite's and Blackrose's avatar by winning something, and that he too received the bracelet from Aura.

" So there is another me... and he too has a bracelet... but what did you mean by ' Shugo you escaped..? ' "

" On our way here we got attacked by those strange knights. They told me to hand Shugo over but of course I refused. I ended up fighting one of those knights and I...lost. They took Shugo with them and left me here for dead "

" You told me something about his sister... what about her? "

" We got separated when we fled from a different dungeon "

" Gosh, I guess this is pretty serious then... "

" Yes, But I don't know if I should say that your timing is good or bad. The Knights are after the bracelets, so they won't rest after they've caught you "

Kite looked at his bracelet and raised an eyebrow.

" Why would anyone want to have this blasted thing? It's nothing but trouble! "

" Maybe they know something we don't... I tried to make contact with Aura, but she didn't react on my call... The same about Helba "

Kite placed his hand on his chin and began to think. He had absolutelty no idea that his next step could be. He was stuck in the game, knights were after him, and he had to wait for his Grunty...

" Well..." Began Kite. "I've summoned Snakey Grunty to the field and asked him if he could walk around **The World **and see if he could find anyone. If we have to fight those creeps, it will be better if we are with a huge group "

" I'm not so sure "Sighed Balmung when he stood up. "Their strength is inhuman, so I'm beginning to think that those characters are cheaters and used codes to strengthen themselves "

The white knights offered his hand to the twin blader and Kite greatly accepted it. He got lifted on his feet and removed some dust off his behind.

" I think the knights are gone... Let's go back to the grassland and see if Snakey Grunty found anything "

Balmung gave a nod, and together they began to make their way back to the surface. It was really a lucky coincidence that he found the knight in here. Because if he didn't, Balmung would be dead and Kite would be alone. What would've happened if the white knight 'd died? Did he return to the real world, or would his soul be trapped in here forever?

For now he was just happy that he found someone. It was far too dangerous for him to walk here alone. Not just because of the knights, but also because of the monsters. Thank the Internet -god that he was logged in at the Aqua capital because all of those levels didn't go above average.

And finally they made it up safe and sound. The sun was shining brightly and the white knight needed some time to adjust, because of the hours he had spent in the dark dungeon.

Kite grabbed his flute and began to play it. After a short while he saw Snakey Grunty running their way, and ended up in a sliding.

" And? Did you found any players? "Asked Kite nervously.

The Grunty blinked a few times with his eyes, but then he gave a nod.

" Yesss masssterrr... I found one at **Forbidden Holy Water Grounds**. Itsss the only one I could fffind. He is waiting for you masssterrrr.... Hiss! "

This was really good news! If they could find that person, they would have a party of three!

He jumped on the grunty and Balmung jumped behind him.

" Bring us to the **Forbidden Holy Water Grounds **"

" Yesss massterr! Hiss! "

----To be Continued ---


End file.
